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I Shall Wear Midnight
I Shall Wear Midnight is, as Pratchett notes, an urban fantasy; the fourth in the series of Discworld novels that focus on the young witch in training, Tiffany Aching. It is the 38th in the Discworld series and was published in Britain on September 2, 2010. The title is based upon the popular poem "When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple" by Jenny Joseph (the correct title for this poem is "Warning") but beyond the title there is no other to link the two works. The title is also a summary of Tiffany's beliefs and values in regards to her wearing colorful clothing throughout her career as a witch, when Boffo would expect her to wear black. The title line is referenced regularly in the series, as well as in Pratchett's The Art of Discworld. '' At the end of ''A Hat Full of Sky, when she is regarding the cloak that the hiver bought while possessing her Pratchett says, "When I'm old I shall wear midnight", she'd decided. "But for now she'd had enough of darkness." Plot Tiffany is working as the Chalk's only witch in a climate of growing suspicion and prejudice. When Amber Petty, is beaten so badly by her drunken father that she loses her child, Tiffany takes her away to the safety of the Nac Mac Feegles where Jeannie, the Kelda, cares for her and finds that she is a quick study in understanding Feegle. The villagers initially plan on teaching Mr. Petty a lesson (rough music) but he flees and, when he sneaks back he begins to spread rumours that Amber has been stolen, rather than saved, by Tiffany. When the local Baron (for whom Tiffany had been caring) dies of poor health, she is accused of murder by his thieving nurse which compounds the fear and suspicions that are circulating about witches. Tiffany travels to Ankh-Morpork with her Nac Mac Feegle cohorts to inform the Baron's heir, Roland, who happens to be in the city with his fiancée Letitia. On the way Tiffany is attacked by the Cunning Man, a frightening figure who has holes where his eyes should be and who is an evil influence on the way people think and act, dripping his poison into peoples's minds and making them hate and fear witches. In the city she meets Mrs Proust, the proprietor of Boffo's joke shop, where many witches buy their stereotypical witch accoutrements. Tiffany sends the Nac Mac Feegles to find Roland and Letitia but as usual, they are distracted by a pub after accomplishing their task and destroy it. When Tiffany and Mrs Proust arrive on the scene they are arrested by Captain Carrot and Sergeant Angua, and (nominally) locked up - although it is mostly, in fact, for their protection as people start to resent witches and attack them. When they are released the next day, the Nac Mac Feegles have restored the pub (now named the King's Neck instead of Head because they restored it back to front) to more than its former glory. In fact the publican is doing such a roaring business he doesn't want it 'fixed' any more and since there is no longer a crime, all are released. Tiffany meets Eskarina Smith (not seen since the events of the third Discworld novel, Equal Rites), who explains to her that one thousand years ago,the Cunning Man was an Omnian witch-finder, who had fallen in love with a witch. That witch, however, knew how evil the Cunning Man was. As she was about to be burned to death, she lured the Cunning Man into her arms (he believed they would flee together) and they were both consumed by the flames, ending his evilness for the time being. Unfortunately, the Cunning Man became a demonic spirit of pure hatred, able to corrupt other minds with suspicion and hate. Esk tells Tiffany that the Cunning Man is coming for her, drawn to Tiffany's power after she kissed the Wintersmith. Tiffany realizes that if she is unable to kill the Cunning Man, the other witches will have no choice but to kill her or else his evil ways will take her over and doom them all. Tiffany and the Feegles return to the Chalk, where they find the Baron's soldiers trying to dig up the Feegle mound, believing the rumours that she has stolen Amber and given her to the 'fairies'. She stops them, and goes to see Roland, who throws her in a dungeon (which she locks on the inside, and where she is brought bacon, eggs, and coffee in the morning). It soon becomes clear to her that the Cunning Man is responsible for the change in attitude of the people of the Chalk toward witches in general and Tiffany in particular. Tiffany begins to realize that her previous relationship with Roland wasn't love but really two people who were different from their peers being thrown together because they were different, not because they had anything in common themselves. Tiffany leaves the dungeon via the chimney and goes to see Letitia, whom she discovers is an untrained but talented witch. They fly together to Letitia's home where she sees the Cunning Man twice more. As guests begin to arrive at the castle for the Baron's funeral and Roland and Letitia's wedding, the other witches start to arrive...so that if the Cunning Man takes over Tiffany's body, they can kill her. Mrs. Proust tells Tiffany that the Cunning Man has taken over the human body of a murdered and that he is one his way to meet her. The night before the wedding, Tiffany, Roland, Letitia and Preston (a castle guard whom Tiffany has befriended) meet at one of the fields that needs to be burned to clear it of stubble; Tiffany lures the Cunning Man chasing Roland, Letitia and herself until he is close enough and tired enough that, when Preston fires the field, they leap through the flames to safety while he is burned alive. In the aftermath, Tiffany insists that the Nac Mac Feegles be given their land, that the new Baron establish a school for the children to help banish ignorance, that Amber and any other village girls be given dowries so that they can improve their lot in life and that Preston be given the opportunity to become a doctor in Ankh-Morpork. The story then jumps forward a year where Tiffany is offered a beautiful black dress by Amber, which her husband (a tailor) has made. Preston, who is as smart as Tiffany, shows his love for her and Tiffany reciprocating it. Ideas and Themes Pratchett continues his exploration of the ideas around class and privilege from the previous novel, Unseen Academicals and which he expands further in the next novel Snuff where he looks at the division between the "upstairs" and the "downstairs" crowd - privilege and the sense of entitlement that goes with being born into the right circle vs being part of the hoi polloi. In Unseen Academicals, Pratchett used the analogy of the crab bucket, whereby any crab trying to escape the cooking pot, is dragged back down by his fellow crabs, much the way ordinary people will believe lies and innuendos about their fellows and discourage them from bettering themselves rather than see them escape the cooking pot and rise above their peers. In this novel, Pratchett uses the character of the Duchess to look at the idea of the accident of birth that places a person in a higher class when they are not deserving of that position and abuse it. The Duchess abuses her servants and her 'subjects' to the point where they live in fear of her and they become completely subservient to her. She believes that this kind of treatment is necessary to retain control and power over them. The Baron, on the other hand, has learned to rule with kindness and by being in tune with his subjects' needs. His subjects are truly saddened when he passes away. The twist and irony comes at the end of the novel, when it is revealed that the Baroness is reallynot high class at all but was a music hall dancer who married well so has no 'inherent right' to her position and snobbishness. She reforms, more out of fear that her secret will be revealed by Tiffany or Mrs. Proust, than out of a genuine remorse, clearly because she does not want her position of privilege jeopardized by her roots among the hoi polloi. Tied in with this theme is another one of Pratchett's common themes, that of the outsider or the person who is 'different' being made a scapegoat for perceived problems in the world while ordinary people stand by and do nothing. Pratchett uses the Cunning Man to represent the way evil things are done by good people because they don't have the guts to stand up and say "That is wrong" but he sets the tone long before the appearance of the Cunning Man with the reference to the old lady and her cat who the villagers fear as a witch and her familiar and respectively freeze to death and are stoned by the villagers because they are 'outsiders'. Later, the guards begin to dig into the Feegles' mounnd to 'save Amber' because they believe the lies that a witch has stolen her - choosing to believe her abusive father (who is ultimately 'one of them') over the witch, Tiffany, who they have known all their lives but is ultimately 'the outsider'. They imprison Tiffany because the new Baron and the Duchess order it - the person in power exerting control over the masses. The plea that "I was only following orders" has been the common cry during every single genocide and Holocaust in Roundworld and is playing out once again with the vilification of Muslims and attacks on them as well as in US president Trump's scapegoating and imprisoning of Mexican migrants (including little children) blaming them for stealing American jobs as the reason for America's decline. Ultimately, as the Nuremberg trials proved, "I was only following orders" is no defense. In this novel, Pratchett uses the backdrop of the vilification of witches through the ages as the means to convey his message. The witch trials and witch finders of Roundworld are used extensively in the novel to illustrate the above themes. The role of witches in the middle ages and later, switched from being the wise old woman good with herbal remedies who could help in childbirth, death and illness to the evil incarnation and associate of the devil. As Tiffany, who with Miss Level, Nanny Ogg and other witches embodies the wise woman qualities, points out on page 67, the connundrum for ordinary people was that "everybody knew, in some mysterious way, that witches ran away with babies and blighted crops, and all the other nonsense. And at the same time, they would come running to the witch when they needed help." The question of whether the witch was burned at the stake came down to, was the need for a scapegoat larger than the need for medical assistance. During the period of religious and political unrest and again after the rise of medical doctors (men) the answer to that question clearly was the former. As Pratchett develops this theme, he slowly changes the way the villagers view Tiffany, shifting from her being the 'go to' person helping them with all their problems, to the children provoking Wentworth into defending his sister, to the family having trouble selling the cheese that Tiffany makes, even though it is the best, to people who have known her all her life believing the bad in her rather than giving her the benefit of the doubt when the Baron dies, to the coachman believing that Tiffany might turn him into something nasty. This is much the way rumour, hatred, racism and bigotry work in Roundworld as well. (Doubleday hardback p 103) "'Still, it could have been worse,' she told herself. 'There could have been snakes on the broomstick.'" Pratchett is alluding to the film Snakes on a Plane ''here and he has used this analogy before (The Fifth Elephant'' with snakes on a sleigh and Carpe Jugulum with snakes in a coach). (Doubleday hardback p 103) ''- ''The Feegles "feel the wind beneath their kilts" while riding Tiffany's broom. This is a reference to the song "The Wind Beneath My Wings"or "Hero") written in 1982 by Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley and recorded initially by Roger Whittaker but made famous by Bette Midler in the movie Beaches. Popular References (Doubleday hardback pp11-14) - ''The scouring fair and the Giant: This scene is based on the Cerne Giant which is carved in the chalk near Cerne Abbas in Dorset. Like Pratchett's giant he is a nude male figure with a prominent erection. He is 55 metres (180 ft) high, and wields a large club in its right hand. Like many other hill figures the Giant is outlined by shallow trenches cut in the turf and backfilled with chalk rubble which need regular cleaning and maintenance, hence the 'scouring fair'. The figure is listed as a scheduled monument of England and the site is owned by the National Trust. Apparently for many years postcards of the giant were the only 'pornographic' images that could legally be sent through HM Royal Mail. A fair similar to Pratchett's Discworld event occurs at Uffington where the White Horse is also (though less ribaldly) scoured, with all the usual entertainments, including Cheese Rolling and ducking for apples, though not apparently ducking for frogs. The White Horse plays a key role in other novels in the Tiffany Aching series. ''(Doubleday hardback p 13) - '' "All those things that make people touch wood and never, ever walk under a black cat." Pratchett is deliberately mixing expressions here. The two expressions are to never walk under a ladder (which has a logical application to it) and never let a black cat cross your path (which has its basis in the fact that cat's were often the familiars of witches). ''(Doubleday hardback p 13) ''The reference to "the things that you did around the changing of the seasons" reminds the reader of the events in the previous novel in the series, ''Wintersmith, ''in which Tiffany dances with the Wintersmith in the Dark Morris to mark the change in the season. ''(Doubleday hardback p 14) - ''The ritual of jumping over a fire together to become married combines two Roundworld traditions. "Jumping the broomstick' was considered a marriage in some cultures and traditions and 'jumping the fire' is an Iranian purification ritual done at '''Chaharshanbe Suri celebrated on the eve of the last Wednesday before Nowruz (the Iranian New Year's day). ''(Doubleday hardback p 15) ''Petulia Gristle is an expert in pig boring which is a takeoff on horsewhispering ''Doubleday hardback p 15) ''Pratchett is being facetious when he says that fewer than half of the various diseases that Petulia treats are pig diseases because most are not diseases and none are specific to pigs. They are: 'blind heaves" - heaves are an airway obstruction problem in horses which Pratchet has combined with 'Blind staggers" a symptom of several unrelated animal diseases, in which the affected animal walks with an unsteady, staggering gait and seems to be blind. "brass neck" - is a play on 'Brassnose College" at Oxford which Pratchett has used before. "floating teeth" - is related to horses and is the description given to the appearances on imaging of teeth that appear to be floating as a result of alveolar bone destruction around their roots. "scribbling eyeball" is probably a play on "swollen eyeball" and the artistic doodling. "grunge" is likely a play on the disease "mange" which is a type of skin disease caused by parasitic mites combined with the musical genre "grunge" also known as the "Seattle Sound" which combined heavy metal and punk and was made famous in the 1980s by Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarten, among others. "the smarts" plays on 'intelligence' and 'to smart' or 'hurt'. "the twisting screws" is probably a combination of "screw worm diseases" in any mammalian animal species including humans and the metal fastener which has a twisting thread on it. "swivelling" simply means 'pivoting' and sounds like it belongs in the movie "The Exorcist" with Linda Blair's neck rotations - appropriately witchy. "gone knees" sounds like the kind of ailment those in need of a knee replacement would suffer from. ''(Doubleday hardback p 29) - ''"Rough Music" is also known as Charivari (or shivaree or chivaree) or Skimmington (or skimmington ride in England and is a term for a folk custom in which a mock parade was staged through a community accompanied by a discordant mock serenade . The crowd aimed to make as much noise as possible by beating on pots and pans or anything that came to hand these parades are often referred to as rough music. Communities used "rough music" to express their disapproval of different types of violation of community norms. (Doubleday hardback p 36) -' ''Tiffany's father calls her 'jiggit' which was Granny Aching's pet name for Tiffany, 'Jiggit' means the number 20 in the old Gaelic counting system based on 20 like the unit "score", which was used throughout the country from early times and is still used today in parts of Northumbria and Scotland for counting sheep and stitches in knitting. Tiffany was Sarah Aching's twentieth grandchild. The "Cunning Man" is possibly based on the Roundworld historical figure Heinrich Kramer, a German Inquisitor, although there has been a long tradition of the phrase "Cunning folk" in parts of England and Wales. Certain Christian theologians and Church authorities believed that the cunning folk, being practitioners of "low magic", were in league with the Devil and as such were akin to the more overtly Satanic and malevolent witches. Partly due to this, laws were enacted across England, Scotland and Wales that often condemned cunning folk and their magical practices, but there was no widespread persecution of them akin to the Witch Hunt, largely because most common people firmly distinguished between the two: witches were seen as being harmful and cunning folk as useful. The name itself resonates with the legend of the Cunning Man in Burghfield Bridge in Berkshire. Various stories exist regarding the legend, cite the Cunning Man as a wizard from nearby Tadley, who was able to heal both ailments and broken relationships. The name is also the title of a novel by Canadian author, Robertson Davies, but whether Pratchett was thinking of either of these sources is unknown. The "Cunning Man" also resonates with the phrase, the "Common Man", ie the ordinary person who is a witness to it all - significant in that the "Cunning Man" works hard to turn the "Common Man" into a vehicle of hatred and viciousness. ''(Doubleday hardback p 41) '- ''Tiffany says to Rob Anybody, "You don't want people coming up to your mound with shovels, do you? You keep away from bigjobs, you hear me?" This foreshadows Roland's men going to the mound with shovels to dig out Amber. '(Doubleday hardback p 46) '''- Pratchett's Discworld is full of strange flower and plant references that are plays on Roundworld ones. Climbing Henry and Twirling Betty the two latest. ''(Doubleday hardback p 47) ''- Jeannie comments when Tiffany mentions that Granny Weatherwax taught her to take away pain. "I hope ye never have occasion to regret the day she did ye that.... kindness." This is probably another bit of foreshadowing for when Tiffany takes away the Baron's pain on his deathbed and ends up accused of his murder, even though she ultimately does not regret it. ''(Doubleday hardback p 48) ''- The two villages, Buckle-Without and Buckle-With-Many are plays on the kind of names that are found in the English countryside where various towns along a stretch of river or area have the same name with a modifier - Dartmouth, Dartmoor (at the mouth or on the moor of the Dart, Upper and Lower Slaughter, etc. Pratchett is likely using a town like Buckland in the Moor as the source of these ones and combining them with fashion accessories. ''(Doubleday hardback p 50) - ''The Feegles and their 'livestock herding' resonates with the border reivers who stole cattle and terrorized the Scottish and English border area between the 13th and 17th century. Later on page 93 they are branding their snails to show ownership, just like cattle was branded in the Americas and later, Australia. ''(Doubleday hardback p 56) - ''The old woman watching Tiffany from the Feegle mound who vanishes foreshadows both Esk time travelling to meet Tiffany in the here and now and the older Tiffany herself meeting the younger one at the end of the novel. ''(Doubleday hardback p 57) - "The hare runs into the fire" Like cats, hares are important figures in folk lore around the world; hares are seen as tricksters, fast and elusive - one interesting tale is the Algonquin story of the Great Hare who brought summer to defeat winter much like has happened in the ''Wintersmith. There is also the African trickster who became Brer Rabbit when he migrated to North America with the slaves, the Welsh hare that Gwion became to escape Ceridwen after he accidentally stole the wisdom she was brewing for her son, the Aesop's fable hare and, for the purposes of this novel, shapeshifting Scottish hares associated with witchcraft. These stories include tales of hares being injured and those ‘bites and rives and scarts’ showing on human bodies, or of hares shot with crooked sixpences transforming into dying old women (witches). Supposedly witches transformed themselves into hares as a means of escaping the flames during the witch trials because hares were agile enough to leap through the flames. Isobel Gowdie of Auldearn, when accused of witchcraft, claimed to become a hare with the words: ☀I sall goe intill ane haire With sorrow, and sych, and meikle care And I sale goe in the Divellis nam Ay whill I com hom againe There is a question of who this particular hare is; Tiffany as her future self, Eskerina Smith time travelling to watch Tiffany, or Granny Weatherwax keeping a watch on Tiffany. As for whether a hare can really jump through fire as Pratchett mentions in the afterword - obviously that would depend on the size of the fire. ''(Doubleday hardback p 61) - ''Tiffany uses Boffo to keep the old woman that the villagers let freeze while stoning her cat to death foremost in their minds. She plants rare flowers and catnip on their graves without telling them so that they think magic is at work, reminding them to feel guilty about their actions. ''(Doubleday hardback p 63) - ''"look at adverts for gingerbread cottages in the builder's brochure" is an obvious reference to the witch in the wood in the Grimm's fairy tale, "Hansel and Gretel". Pratchett regularly uses this line in the witches and Tiffany Aching series, along with the "oven" and "cackling" to refer to witches who have gone over to the dark side. ''(Doubleday hardback p 67) - ''Joe Aching says to Tiffany, "There are some things a whole village has to do". This is an ironic reference to the famous African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child" which means that it takes an entire community of different people interacting with children in order for a child to experience and grow in a safe environment, with all the villagers looking out for the children and contributing toward their development. Clearly, this village has missed the mark completely in allowing Amber to be beaten and her unborn child to die because of her father's abuse and Joe Aching is adamant it won't happen again. ''(Doubleday hardback p 67) -'' Nurse Spruce (whose name reflects someone who is neat and clean and likely never gets her hands dirty) tells Tiffany that she has been praying for (the Baron) all morning. Tiffany replies that she is "sure that was very kind of you" keeping the sarcasm out of her voice. A subtle Pratchett shot at religion and people who talk but don't do - reflected in the fact that the nurse has done nothing to ease the Baron's pain. ''(Doubleday hardback p 71-72) - ''Clearly the Baron, like Pratchett, is a wordsmith as his and Tifffany's explanation of 'arse' vs 'ass' are quite correct. 'Arse' in fact is the original form of the word for "buttocks" coming from Old English 'ærs''' "tail, rump," from Proto-Germanic *'arsoz' (Old Saxon) and is common usage in Britain. 'Ass' means a donkey there, whereas in the USA, 'ass' is used for both and 'arse' is considered (incorrectly) to be an affectation. '(Doubleday hardback p 73) - 'Tiffany says to the Baron in regard to her rescuing Roland from the Elves and not telling anyone, "boys with swords rescue girls. That's how the stories go. That's how stories work. No one really wanted the think the other way round." In myth, legend, fairy tales and saga it is always the man who is the knight in shining armour rescuing the blue eyed, blond princess. The woman's role is to be the passive victim. Fortunately times have changed. '(Doubleday hardback p 75) - 'Roundworld currency, like the Baron's old dollars, was originally based on the concept that the coin had an actual value in an of itself to the same amount as its designated currency. Hence silver and gold were used, not brass, and, if a lesser amount was needed, the coin was simply cut into pieces (a concept which Pratchett uses in ''Going Postal). '"''he real 'shilling" was therefore a coin that was really worth 1/20 of a British pound. '(Doubleday hardback p 77) - 'Tiffany tells the Baron that Death says the afterlife has no mustard or pickles. In other novels it evidently also has no chutney. Perhaps Pratchett is suggesting that in fact the afterlife has no 'relish' for him. '(Doubleday hardback p 78) - (Doubleday hardback p 67) ''- '''Nurse Spruce screams, "Get out of here you brazen hussy." to which Tiffany replies, "I am not brazen and I don't huss!" Pratchett is playing on words here. A hussy is a wanton woman, the word coming from more honorable origins, Middle English huswif, housewife. It is not a diminutive of huss as is common with 'y' or 'ie' endings in English. However, John Huss was a Czech religious reformer so if Pratchett is thinking of anything else he may be suggesting that Tiffany sticks to her methods and witch craft skills and 'is not going to change for anyone,especially the nurse. The use of 'brazen' is also significant given the previous discussion on real money and the use of 'brass' instead of gold or silver in modern Discworld and Roundworld coins. '(Doubleday hardback p 79) - 'The nurse then calls Tiffany a "black and midnight hag". This is a reference to the title of the book but also to the witches in Shakespeare's ''Macbeth Act 4, Scene 1 ''where Macbeth says, "How now, you secret, black and midnight hags." Again Pratchett has fun with the line by having Tiffany reply "It's only eleven thirty!" '(Doubleday hardback p 79) -'The little Baron's tweed jacket did smell of 'wee', not because he had urinated in it but, as Pratchett explains in the footnote, because urine was used as a mordant in the weaving and woolen industry to set dyes in the cloth so that they did not run. In other Ankh-Morport based novels, Harry King collects urine for this purpose and is know as the King of the Golden River (urine). The Baron tells Tiffany that his father sang "''The Larks They Sang Melodious". ''This traditional folk song was first published around 1810 and is also known as "Pleasant and Delightful" or "A Sailor and His True Love". It has been performed by artists including the Irish Rovers, Louis Killen, Charlie Bate, Shirley Collins and Show of Hands. '(Doubleday hardback p 95-97) - 'The characters of the Pettys are typical of abusive relationships in literature and the real world (if there can be anything 'typical' about abuse). The wife in denial that her husband is a bad man going back to him, siding with him against the world. The husband showing glimmers of goodness between the abuse and being nice to the wife 'provided dinner was on time'. The depressed state of the family home leading to more abuse, more depression, etc in an endless cycle. And the belief that the wife needs to stand by her man because he needs her. When Tiffany suggests a short holiday from his abuse, Mrs.Petty gasps, "Oh no!" "He wouldn't know what to do without me!" '(Doubleday hardback p 99) - 'A geas (pronounced gesh), in Irish folklore and Feegle tradition is an obligation or prohibition magically imposed on a person. Throughout the series, Daft Wullie confuses it with a 'flock of big burdies' - '''geese'. '(Doubleday hardback p 103) "'Still, it could have been worse', she told herself. 'There could have been snakes on the broomstick."' Pratchett has used variations on this reference to the movie Snakes on a Plane ''before in ''The Fifth Elephant with snakes on a sleigh and Carpe Jugulum with snakes in a coach. (Doubleday hardback p 103) - The Feegles could "feel the wind beneath their kilts". This is a reference to the song "Wind Beneath My Wings" (sometimes titled "The Wind Beneath My Wings" and "Hero") written in 1982 by Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley and recorded first by Roger Whittaker but popularized by Bette Midler in the 1988 movie, Beaches, ''winning two Grammys for record of the year and song of the year. Obviously it is also a reference to the fact that nothing is worn under the kilt of a Feegle. 'Doubleday hardback p 105) -'Tiffany's landing of her flaming broomstick on top of the moving coach has its parallel in the standard operating procedure for aircraft landing on the deck of a moving carrier at sea. This is just one of many allusions in the book and series that compare broom and broom travel to plane travel. 'Doubleday hardback p 106) - 'The parcel coach driver drops the ball which is obviously based on the mirror balls or disco balls popular at discotheques in the 1970s. Just like the dance moves associated with disco were frowned upon by puritanical types as being 'sex with clothes on', so too was the waltz when it first came out, as the coach driver points out to Tiffany. 'Doubleday hardback p 108) -''' When surnames were first becoming common, people often took a surname based on their occupation - Carpenter, Smith, etc. Pratchett is playing with this in a couple of ways in the coach driver being named William Glottal Carpetlayer. Firstly, as Tiffany points out, he is a coachman so should have that as a surname. But secondly, there were no carpets when this practice began so there would have been no people taking the surname 'Carpetlayer' anyway. Pratchett, who loves to play with language and word origins, adds to this by following the common English first name of "William" with the middle name of "Glottal". A "glottal stop" is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʔ⟩. An example in English is "oh-oh" ''Doubleday hardback p 108) ''- The horseman's word is another example of Pratchett playing with 'horsewhispering' which she uses in connection to Petulia Gristle, the pig borer. ''Doubleday hardback p 110-111) ''The language that the Cunning Man puts into people's mouths is the kind of universal language used by zealots throughout the world but more specifically to the hell fire and brimstone preachers of the early Protestant breakaway churches which continue in the fundamentalist Christian sects popular in the USA today. ''Doubleday hardback p 117) - '' Boffo's Joke Emporium was introduced in ''Wintersmith'' and is the source of the Witches' term Boffo - ''"the power of expectations"; the strength one gains from behaving exactly as someone expects you to. As well as selling accoutrements to make the everyday witch look the part, they also sell regular practical joke products. 'Doubleday hardback p 118) - For t'he Hag in a Hurry products "''Because you're worthless" ''is a play on the commercial slogan for French cosmetic company L'Oreal - "Because you're worth it" Pratchett hinted when questioned during his ''Wintersmith tour that Esk, the female wizard featured in Equal Rites, might reappear for the first time in this book if it were written. In this novel Eskarina Smith is now an experienced female wizard who has mastered time travel and became very powerful. Notes Category:Novels Category:Tiffany Aching series Category:Books Category:Books (real-world)